Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10141

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Miles J.
Drug hotline may close
Courier Mail (Brisbane) 2007 May 19
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21757617-953,00.html

Full text:

THE consumer hotline responsible for alerting the public about controversial sleeping pill Stilnox faces closure.

Funding for the Brisbane-based Adverse Medicine Events Line, which receives calls from across Australia, has only been guaranteed until next month.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has provided interim funding for the $150,000-a-year hotline since mid-2006, but is threatening to pull out, saying the service should be a Federal Government responsibility.

The guild intervened to keep the line open after funding from the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Healthcare ended.

Guild president Kos Sclavos said his members’ funding was only meant to be temporary.

Mr Sclavos said the hotline should be the responsibility of a federal government body such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration or the National Prescribing Service.

Pharmacist Geraldine Moses, who runs the hotline, said the Stilnox debate had illustrated how vital such a service was.

The hotline was largely responsible for reporting serious events linked to Stilnox use, such as sleep driving, to the Federal Government’s Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee.

ADRAC warned doctors in February about the drug’s potentially dangerous side effects.

“What Stilnox has really shown better than any safety issue I’ve seen in my 20 years of pharmacy is how you can have a drug side effect happening that health professionals don’t know about,” Dr Moses said.

The hotline has received more than 600 calls about Stilnox.

Mr Sclavos said the Stilnox case was an example of why the service should continue.

“Problems with Stilnox and other drug cases reported to this service have resulted in national consumer medicines information changing to improve safety,” he said.